Pieter Levels:

It's been almost a decade now that we've all been promoting the benefits of remote work and location independent living.

With the pandemic suddenly shooting remote work into the mainstream, it seems like people are finally starting to believe the merits of remote work. Most people don't want to go back to the office and I strongly believe most people won't go back to the office after the pandemic ends.

We now have millions of people working remotely but most still have to work at specific hours, be on standby, take calls and attend virtual meetings.

What's the next thing after remote work is now mainstream? I think it's async work.

Async is short for asynchronous and in this case it means being able to work without having to wait for someone else to answer.

With async you decide when you work, you're autonomous and the only thing that matters is if you get your work done. There's no manager looking over your shoulder, and you don't have to be on-call. You get a lot of responsibility and because of that you make sure you actually do great work. Because if you don't, you lose your job. But evaluating your performance stops being about showing up, it starts being about the quality of your work.

Many of us who have been working remotely for the last decade have also been async because they go together well.

I highly recommend you check out the rest of Pieter's post. This falls in line with how I try to live and keep a work / life balance.